What is Cavendish's cadence in a sprint?

It seems to be really low. From my observations, my estimate is that he has a cadence of between 90 and a 100, a fairly low cadence for a sprint, but I guess after going over 100 miles, your legs are not to have that much snap.

So assuming he's riding a 53/11, that means his speed is about 35 to 40 mph.

It seems to be really low. From my observations, my estimate is that he has a cadence of between 90 and a 100, a fairly low cadence for a sprint, but I guess after going over 100 miles, your legs are not to have that much snap.

So assuming he's riding a 53/11, that means his speed is about 35 to 40 mph.

Does that seem right?

35mph is pretty light for these guys, I hit 34.5 on Sat for the city limits on a flat road with slight head wind. The two guys in front of me were probably about .5-1mph faster. It looks like all three, Cav, Thor, and Tyler look like they are turning a low cadence though.

On stage 11 I timed his last 7 strokes at just over 4 seconds which would be 102 RPM. Roughly 49kph in a 53x14. It looks like they gained about 30m of elevation in the final 500m so a 6% slope which would take a little over 1100W according to kreuzotter.

My question is: why is it recommended to do spinups in the little ring if the pro sprinters aren't turning more than 110 or 120 in the final sprint?

I like that gear speed calculator. I plugged in 52, 53, 54 to get common chainrings vs speed.

52x11 - going from 100 to 104 rpm is just over 1 mph difference (that's what I was referring to in my previous post). Miscounting just a few rpm (or varying cadence just a touch over a couple seconds) is significant.

At 100 rpm, 52 vs 54 is 1.5 mph difference in speed. I guess when I ran a 54, it was worth either -3 rpm or forcing guys to pedal just a bit faster. Jeez 120 rpm.

I think guys will run slightly larger rings (54 for example) to hone their sprint. I felt it was helpful at the very top end. I used to run 51, 53, then 54 as the season progressed. Now I can't turn over the 53 even so a 54 would be useless. And I don't have my 51 anymore so I just run a 53 all the time.

My question is: why is it recommended to do spinups in the little ring if the pro sprinters aren't turning more than 110 or 120 in the final sprint?

Keep in mind that the pros were amateurs once. They've done a lot of various training, miles, etc. Hincapie is the only Tour guy I've raced against (meaning we entered the same race - that's about the closest I got to beating him), and he cleaned up around here as a 15 year old. He rode the Jr gear limits (49x15 or 53x16 as an Intermediate, then one tooth smaller as a full fledged Junior), learned to spin those little gears, etc etc etc.

Spinups and other high cadence drills help accelerate learning pedaling efficiency. This efficiency takes a long time to hone, lots of hours, lots of muscle memory, and drills and such help accelerate the process. That's why guys do fixed gear work, lots of LSD, spin ups, etc etc etc. Doing 15k or 20k miles a year for 3 or 5 or whatever years goes a long way towards honing pedaling efficiency. Or you could just do fewer miles for more years. I took the latter approach since I've never exceeded 10k miles, and usually am below 3k for the year.

Another way to hone pedaling efficiency is to do long, long, long hours, even for riders like me. You learn to pedal more efficiently when you have almost no gas left but enough to keep your wits about you. Suddenly you'll realize that sitting "just so" will help, or standing "just so", etc. I learned the hard way about saving energy - bonk 30 miles from home will teach you how to ride using as close to zero wasted energy as possible. Or doing 100 mile rides in Feb. Or ride (not as many miles as a pro, but also drill) for 20 or 30 years.

Thor seems to have the lowest cadence of any sprinter I've seen, and he always sits well before the line. He sprints like he's out of gas.

That's why I'd love to see his SRM downloads, he's kinda mashing the gears so his watts must be pretty high. Honestly it wouldn't matter if he was turning 80 or 180 the dude has a vicious kick and he can hold it.

That's why I'd love to see his SRM downloads, he's kinda mashing the gears so his watts must be pretty high. Honestly it wouldn't matter if he was turning 80 or 180 the dude has a vicious kick and he can hold it.

In the past he's held it but he just doesn't seem to be doing it this year. I have wondered why he just doesn't take it out from 250-300m. If you watch almost as soon as he pulls out from behind Cav he starts to sit after just a few revs, almost like he can't get on top of the gear.

I think Farrar should go while Cav is still on his leadout wheel. In most of the sprints Cav jumps first and holds the same gap, it never increases. There was one where he dropped everyone bad but not usually. So far he who jumps first wins.

In the past he's held it but he just doesn't seem to be doing it this year. I have wondered why he just doesn't take it out from 250-300m. If you watch almost as soon as he pulls out from behind Cav he starts to sit after just a few revs, almost like he can't get on top of the gear.

I think Farrar should go while Cav is still on his leadout wheel. In most of the sprints Cav jumps first and holds the same gap, it never increases. There was one where he dropped everyone bad but not usually. So far he who jumps first wins.

I was referring to Cav's kick. But yeah I see your point...I think at this juncture you might as well go early cause you aren't going to come around him.